All posts by markus

The new Four Tet album There Is Love In You is now available in stores on vinyl, CD and digital download. This is Four Tet’s first new album in over four years and fifth LP to date.

Kieran Hebden, the man behind the Four Tet moniker, formed his first band, Fridge, with friends Adem Ilhan and Sam Jeffers at Elliott School (a school famous for alumni including Hot Chip and The XX). In 1999 he started working as a solo producer, releasing work under the name Four Tet. His debut album, Dialogue (Output, 1999) was released when he was just 21 and explored the outer reaches of both free jazz and soul music. Pause marked Kieran’s debut for Domino Records and immediately set Four Tet apart from the isolated and introverted tendencies of the contemporary electronica of the time. The three albums he released in quick succession, Pause (2001), Rounds (2003) and Everything Ecstatic (2005), represent a high watermark in new forms of pioneering musical creativity.

Four Tet - Plastic People

There Is Love In You clearly shows he hasn’t lost his touch. Still experimenting with sounds and structures, Kieran offers nine tightly crafted tracks, with impeccable production. This is an album you can listen on repeat and keep finding new elements every time…

As a bonus, here’s “Ribbons”, a track taken off Four Tet’s Ringer EP (Domino, 2008).

Russian trio Tesla Boy are a 80s-esque new wave / synthpop band formed in 2008 in Moscow. Often compared to Cut/Copy and other electro bands, they are the first Russian act to get real media attention since t.A.T.u. But the comparison stops there. Anton Sevidov (vocals, keys), Dima Midborn (bass, vocals) and Boris Lifshits (drums) are three dedicated musicians with a mind of their own and a knack for good pop and powerful hooks.

Tesla Boy - Electric Lady

“Electric Lady” is taken off Tesla Boy’s first self-titled EP, released in September 2009 on Mullet Records. In their EP, the boys show how well they know their classics (think 80’s synth sounds) and offer us a good collection of delightfully retro tracks.

Tesla Boy also did a great job remixing “Nightdrive”, the track that got Anoraak flying the charts last year. Check it out!

Anoraak - Nightdrive With You (Tesla Boy Remix)

For more info find Tesla Boy on MySpace. You can purchase their music on

Let’s go back in time a little and introduce Chromatics! They have long been amongst our favourites but never made it to these pages but this is just about to change.

Chromatics are part of the Italo Disco revival that has seen the emergence of other bands such as Glass Candy, Heartbreak or Telefon Boys. They use this musical genre and put their own twist on it, infused with sad romanticism melodramatic string arrangements and dirty disco beats. Check out their cover of Kate Bush’s monumental “Running Up That Hill”…

Chromatics - Running Up That Hill

Based in Portland, the band is the brainchild of Adam Miller, who teamed up with Johnny Jewel (one half of duo Glass Candy) in 2004 to work on a new record and later recruited vocalist Ruth Radelet in 2006. They released the In The City EP on underground label Italians Do It Better in autumn 2007, closely followed by a fully fledged album, Night Drive, also known as IV.

Chromatics - Mask

When Ruth grabs her mic and her breathy vocals come out sad and melancolic, the tone is set. “Mask” is a song you listen to at night, in the car or at home, when you’ve just returned from a club but the night hasn’t really worked out the way you planned. With your clothes in a bundle on the floor, the vague smell of cigarette and sweat, you lie down, push the volume up and the room stands still for 5 minutes while emotions rush to your mind and tears fall down your cheeks.

Caribou is Canadian-born Dan Snaith, who formerly recorded under the moniker Manitoba. Coming from a family of mathematicians, Snaith spent many years torn between music and maths. In 2005, he completed his PhD at the University of London and is now working full time on his music. Known for altering his sound with each subsequent release, he incorporates electronic textures and breakbeat drums and creates a lush musical panorama.

His last album, Andorra (2007, City Slang), won Canada’s Polaris Music Prize, so hopes are high for the follow-up. Caribou’s new LP, Swim, will be out April 20, courtesy of Merge in North America and City Slang in the UK and Europe. The album’s opening track “Odessa” is available for free download on Caribou’s official site.

Caribou - Odessa

Recorded between Wales and Canada, the album has been described by Snaith as folllows: “I got excited by the idea of making dance music that’s liquid in the way it flows back and forth, the sounds slosh around in pitch, timbre, pan… Dance music that sounds like it’s made out of water, rather than made out of metallic stuff like most dance music does.”

As a bonus, here’s “Lord Leopard”, taken off Caribou’s 2005 release The Milk Of Human Kindness.

Tracey Thorn‘s new album Love And Its Opposite will be released on May 17. There will be a single with remixes out in April, but to keep you going until then you can download the album’s opening track, “Oh, The Divorces!” for free HERE. Granted leave of absence from Virgin/EMI, Tracey will see the album released on partner Ben Watt‘s Strange Feeling Records, where she joins labelmates such as The Unbending Trees and Copenhagen’s Figurines.

Tracey Thorn - Oh

With Love And Its Opposite Tracey Thorn departs from the electrofolk sound that infused her 2007 release Out Of The Woods. The latter was her first strictly solo album since 1982’s indie classic A Distant Shore and it received rave reviews. Ranging from subdued electronica to downright glittering disco, the songs on Out Of The Woods really enhance Thorn’s lyrics and magical voice.

Tracey Thorn - It's All True

Let’s not forget that Tracey Thorn was also one half of Everything But The Girl with partner Ben Watt. The band left behind them a large collection of hits, one of the most memorable being “Missing”, here remixed by Todd Terry. Oh, the 90s…